Two prison bosses are allegedly stalking inmates’ wives who visit their husbands in their correctional facilities, forcing the women to have sex with them or have their loved ones face ill-treatment.
A five-month Sunday World investigation established that Joseph “Joe” Nkoli, the head of the Groenpunt maximum correctional facility in Vereeniging, allegedly made one of the women pregnant and forced her to abort the foetus to cover his tracks.
The woman, whose name cannot be published, is from Soweto.
Nkoli allegedly frequently travelled to Daveyton, east of Johannesburg, to visit the wife of another prisoner, with whom he also had sex at a guest house.
Speaking to Sunday World on condition of anonymity, the mother of two children confirmed that Nkoli gave her a lift from the facility in May after she had visited her husband, who has been in jail since 2019 for armed robbery, and asked for her contact details.
“One day, after asking for a location, he showed up in the middle of the night in his white BMW and started fondling and touching me. I didn’t resist his sexual advances because I knew what would happen to my husband back in prison,” she said.
Afterwards, she said, Nkoli started bombarding her with sexual WhatsApp messages in which he confessed that he was horny and needed to be intimate with her.
Sunday World has seen some of the messages, including a photo of Nkoli’s private parts, which he allegedly sent to the woman.
The prison boss even sent the woman some cash in July, and this newspaper has also seen that transaction from “J Nkoli” to her.
The woman said weeks after Nkoli’s night visit, he allegedly asked her to wait for him in Vereeniging after another visitto her husband in prison and then booked a guest house where he allegedly had sex with her.
The woman claims she gave him what he wanted because she believed her husband suffered a lot under Nkoli.
Her husband, she said, was sometimes “even being taken to solitary confinement”.
Nkoli also even allegedly shared confidential information with the woman, including her husband’s prison file.
Sunday World had seen some of the explicit WhatsApp messages between Nkoli and the woman. “Ke duma kuku – (I need p@#y)” and “I am too erected now what about you.”
In another development, a prisoner from Zonderwater Medium B prison has accused one of the bosses of also having had sex with his wife, whose name is known to Sunday World.
He even complained he was being ill-treated in prison.
The prisoner, Koos Mlotshwa, tried in vain to file an affidavit in August. In the affidavit, Mlotshwa claims one of the bosses is dating my wife; as a result, I can’t concentrate on the programmes happening on the centre.”
The said boss is no stranger to controversy; he was arrested and charged with rape on December 29, 2011.
The woman who opened the rape case against him was allegedly threatened to the point where she withdrew the case.
The prison boss, even though facing a serious offence, was released on R1 000 bail and reported back to work.
He was also convicted of culpable homicide in 2003 and sentenced to three years imprisonment.
Strangely, he only spent five days at the Pretoria Correctional Centre between February 21 and 26, 2003.
He was released on bail pending his appeal against the conviction and sentence, and he reported back to work in May 2005 as if nothing had happened.
Nkoli on Friday vehemently denied shagging wives of the inmates, saying he “can’t recall such things”.
“I can’t recall sending a photo of my d@#k I never booked a guest house for anybody. I have never slept with anybody.” he said.
Nkoli even denied knowing the woman from Daveyton or visiting the area in recent years.
But Sunday World can reveal that Nkoli phoned the woman after our interview and begged her to deny everything should she get a phone call from this reporter.
After a lengthy denial, Nkoli finally admitted knowing the woman, as she allegedly walked into his office one day and demanded to see her husband’s files, which he admitted showing her with her husband’s consent.
Nkoli also remembered depositing money into the woman’s bank account because “so many people are asking me for assistance”.
“If any person would ask me for assastance, I will assist. I am a very understanding person,” he said.
He denied banging her at a guest house in Vereeniging.
He also denied impregnating one of the inmates’ wives and then forced her to abort the foetus.
“I never forced her to have an abortion. I have never slept with anybody.”
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the department would investigate the allegations.
